Witchcraft & Wicca

Magical art and, in the West, both a system of magic and an organised religion. As a religion, Witchcraft is often called "Wicca," an Old English term for "witch," in order to counter the negative stereotypes of Witches as evil Devil-worshipers. The magical art of witchcraft exists universally. It is a type of sorcery, involving the mechanistic casting of spells and divination. Fear of witchcraft has a long history in the West. Witches were renowned in ancient Greece and Rome, especially for their evil eye. As Christianity spread, witchcraft increasingly was associated with the Devil; it was practised by pagans, and all pagan deities were demonised. In the mid-fifteenth century, sorcery, and therefore witchcraft, became a heresy itself by papal decree. Over about 250 years, an estimated 200,000 people (mostly women) were executed for witchcraft in Europe.
By 1951 witchcraft ceased to be a crime in Britain and, in effect, came out of the closet led by Gerald Gardner. The introduction of Witchcraft to America was lead by Raymond and Rosemary Buckland, who were intiated by Gardner in England, prior to moving to the US. Witches have great reverence for nature and all life forms. The supreme law of the Craft is called the Wiccan Rede: "An' it harm none, do what ye will."